Salil wrote:2009 Marcel Lapierre Morgon (The Kermit Lynch bottling with sulfur for those who keep track.) Really fantastic; starting with a core of deep red fruited flavours on an incredibly elegant, silken textured frame and opening out aromatically with time as floral aspects, anise and touches of earth emerge around the fruit. Very ripe but carries itself with a sense of lightness and precision with tremendous length and persistence. Need to load up on this.

I might have to give this another try. My first bottle left me a bit ambivalent, and then once I tried the Roilettes I was more interested in them. Still, there is so much good material in all of these wines they should come into their own over the upcoming weeks, months, and years.

The 2009 Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorées Fleurie is big young and grapey. No shortage of fruit. It calms down a bit with air and settles into a luscious fleshy dark structure firm mineral graphite type of thing. But without the distinction, precision, or focus of the regular Coudert. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this one will develop nicely with time, and it's probably not fair to compare it to Coudert. Certainly both are fine wines. But for now I'd rather drink the 2009 Clos de la Roilette Fleurie. This is my second bottle in two weeks and I'm not loving the second one as much as the first. But it's still pretty damned good. It is a bit tight on opening but is so ripe and dark yet light crisp and precise, I have to be happy. With air, in come a bit of the tannins and I'm sure this will be very interesting to follow over time.

Warm plum fruit, earth, savory tannins. I have really enjoyed past vintages of this wine, and the 2008 did not disappoint.

Sounds good. I don't remember 'warm plum fruit' from last winter, but I guess this wine has filled in a bit since then. Which is nice, because this is usually such a great wine and I was a bit disappointed back then.

Some notes on the Beaujolais we tasted in Paris in June. Note that the prices quoted are in Euros.

Domaine des Rosiers Chenas 2007. 9.50 Very good straightforward Beaujolais. Clean raspberry nose. Solid fruit and well balanced, although without much in the way of complexity. Will be better with another year or two under its belt.Dom. Jocelyne Depardon & Erick Coperet Fleurie 2005 12.00Cru Beaujolais with 5 years of age. One of the best Beaujolais that we have enjoyed. Nose of red fruit, more raspberry than strawberry. Medium weight and totally refreshing to drink. Medium weight and elegant. Slipped down like silk, with each taste better than the last. This is not a producer that we have heard of, and is probably all consumed in France. Domage!Jean Foillard Morgon “Cote de Py” 2008 18.90This sort of wine shows just how good a Beaujolais can be. Medium red colour with a nose of redcurrants and raspberry. Medium weight and layered with fruit and a little earthiness. Beautifully balanced with soft tannins. The fruit carries through on to the 30 second finish. Will surely improve for a few more years and could well be a 10 year wine. The Fleurie we had the other night was like a woman in her early thirties, elegant, sophisticated and totally feminine. This Morgon was a 24 year old fit male, exuding confidence, but needing a few more years to gain full maturity. There were, happily, traces of his partner’s perfume nicely softening his harder edges.G. Descombes Morgon V.V. 2006 17.00Medium red colour. Raspberry fruit but unbalanced by an excess of acidity, presumably as a result of the vintage. Quite drinkable with food, but always that unsettling edge of acidity.M. Lapierre Morgon 2008 17.85Young, but very approachable. Nice raspberry fruit with enough concentration to make it very interesting. No sign of the excess acidity of the 2006 Descombes. Why are these Morgons so under-rated? They are every bit as interesting as village level Burgundies at half the price. This wine had great balance and carried it’s fruit right through the finish. Excellent.M. Lapierre MMIII 25.65This wine is Lapierre’s luxury cuvee made only in outstanding years (the next one is MMVII). Classified as Vin de Table. Made from 100 year-old vines, compared to the regular cuvee’s average 45 years. As good as the regular Morgon was, this was in a different league. The nose was all redcurrants with a hint of raspberry. Same fruit in the mouth plus just a hint of anise, with a concentration and complexity that we had never before experienced in a Beaujolais. Even a Morgon which I had drunk in the 1970’s, and which was a gold medal winner in Burgundy, paled in comparison. This is serious, serious wine. It didn’t try to be Burgundy, it just was the quintessence of Gamay.

David N wrote:M. Lapierre Morgon 2008 17.85Why are these Morgons so under-rated?

You think Lapierre is under-rated? He's the poster boy for Morgon and natural wine, especially in Paris where it seems like his wine is one of the few names that are standard on quasi-hipster wine lists.

2005 Domaine des Terres Dorées (Jean-Paul Brun) Moulin-à-VentThis has opened up quite a lot since it was first released. the floral, fruit and mineral elements of the wine are in harmony, and even my wife (who does not like any red wine) commented on how nice it smells. There's still a fair bit of a nearly tannic chalkiness on the back end suggesting that further cellaring is possible, but it's hard not to drink this all straight away. Delicious!

There behind the glass lies a real blade of grass. Be careful as you pass. Move along. Move along.

Rahsaan,My comment about the wines being under-appreciated was written after we had been tasting a series of Morgons. It should have been directed to Cru Beaujolais in general.I have many friends who have cellars (some very large), but I only know one who regularly buys and cellars Beaujolais. Typically Beaujolais is dismissed as "Bojo" and as a picnic wine.Unfortunately in our market (basically government monopoly), the only Beaujolais offered are Duboeuf and LaPierre. In very good years it is possible to buy good wines marketed by Duboeuf. I only last year finished a case of Duboeuf Julienas La Trinquee 2003. Every bottle was good and excellent value. The main problem that I have with Duboeuf is that his supremacy in brilliant marketing(low prices, Beaujolais nouveau, etc.) has really hurt the Beaujolais producers who have been trying to produce very good wines. It has been a Wal-mart race to the bottom.Hopefully, the efforts of the small group of producers who have been striving for quality will lift the market view to again regard the Cru Beaujolais with the respect that they deserve.

Fair enough. I know there are people out there who don't appreciate Beaujolais. But there aren't too many of them on this site!

And interesting comment you make about Duboeuf and Lapierre being the two Beaujolais available locally. I don't have any precise numbers but it backs up my point about Lapierre being the artisanal Beaujolais producer. I don't think they're having any problem selling their massive well-marketed (and usually delicious) production. But of course there are lots of other producers who don't enjoy the same market perch.

2008 Coudert Fleurie Clos de la Roilette (France, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Fleurie) 8/28/2010 Not feeling this tonight... maybe my mistake was trying the '09 version first. Not sure if this is the vintage showing through or the bottle is just in a bad place right now, but this was just all over the place. Some nice lean beaujolais fruit lurking around but the acidity really took over and stole the show... not very fun to drink tonight. I'm planning on leaving my remaining two bottles in the cellar for a few years, the track record of the wine and producer gives me hope. In the meantime, I'll be tracking down more of the '09, which is just in another league altogether.

I really wasn't expecting this to be a mediocre bottle. The wine was ony open for about 3 hours, no decanting or aeration. I had it shipped last Wednesday as well.... not sure if these affected the bottle, but the imbalance between the acidity and the fruit worries me. Other notes on cellartracker are more positive so I'm hoping it was just a bad showing.

Ok, I don't trust this low-sulfur wine to remain stable, but darn it hardly matters, as it's so good now! Ripe, fleshy yet also possessing an acidic backbone that hides in the background until it is absolutely needed; all this makes for a delicious drinking experience. Outstanding!

There behind the glass lies a real blade of grass. Be careful as you pass. Move along. Move along.

And it is not bad at all to have something so delicious that can be drunk now - in fact probably needs to be drunk now if you don't want to play brett roulette. There's plenty of other wine that rewards and/or requires extended cellaring.

There behind the glass lies a real blade of grass. Be careful as you pass. Move along. Move along.

Jean-Paul Brun 2008 Cote de Brouilly Terres Dorees, $18From my experience, this is a reliably delicious bottling year after year. The 2008 starts with an effusive nose of mixed red berries, minerals and flowers, followed by a delightful palate with bright, tart strawberry and raspberry fruit and lots of dark minerals like granite. It is refreshing, with a very crunchy texture and good structure. Excellent match with pizza. After four days in the fridge, it’s still going great. I imagine this would be an excellent candidate for aging were it not bottled with a plastic cork, but no matter — it’s terrific young, too.

David M. Bueker wrote:And it is not bad at all to have something so delicious that can be drunk now - in fact probably needs to be drunk now if you don't want to play brett roulette. There's plenty of other wine that rewards and/or requires extended cellaring.

Given the depth of flavour it already has and the elegant/finessed texture (which is one of the main things I look for in developed/older wines), I also don't see the need to cellar it longer.

Not that I'm trying to make more excuses justifying drinking all my bottles by fall.